Job summary
Having an effective, up to date Local Plan is essential to planning for and delivering the homes and infrastructure the country needs; in ways that make good use of land and result in well-designed and attractive places to live. It is a priority of the Secretary of State to see universal coverage of ambitious Local Plans as soon as possible.
There are three exciting opportunities for SEOs or SPTOs in the Local Plans division. These are fast paced and challenging roles which will see the successful candidate working with Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), other Government departments (OGDs) and a range of other stakeholders to ensure Local Plans are put in place across the country.
Job description
Two of the three roles are for Geographical Leads, this involves leading on a range of Local Plan work across a specific geographic area including:�
1. Meeting and developing relationships with LPA officers in their geographical area to discuss Local Plan progress and provide support.�
2. Advising Ministers about Planning Inspectors� letters and Inspector�s Reports under the Planning Inspectorate�s (PINS) 48-hour protocol.�
3. Responsibility for Local Plan delivery casework such as providing timely advice to Ministers at pace, for example, on requests to exercise the Secretary of State�s powers to intervene in plan making.�
4. Leading on correspondence on LPAs in their geographical area.�
5. Writing responses to Parliamentary Questions and providing material for speeches and briefings for ministerial meetings and debates.�
6. Providing input on planning reform and ensuring wider policy changes are implemented in a way that supports the preparation of Local Plans.�
7. Forming constructive working relationships with external stakeholders and representing the Department at external meetings and events.��
8. Working closely with legal colleagues, LPAs, PINS, PAS, OGDs and the wider Department on removing barriers to Local Plans being put in place.��
The third role is the Briefing and Engagement Lead, whose responsibilities include:
9. Ensuring the team�s engagement with LPAs supports Local Plans being adopted as we transition into the reformed plan making system.
10. Supporting the Secretary of State�s programme of intervention where Local Plans are significantly out of date.
11. Working with PAS to deliver plan making support to LPAs during the transition to a new planning system. This includes determining the scope of support and obtaining ministerial agreement as needed, developing and agreeing the performance management structure with PAS and working on annual grant agreements and budgets.
12. Managing the division�s briefing and correspondence function ensuring that quality information and intelligence on Local Plans is fed into a variety of commissions such as briefings, meetings, debates, speeches and letters.�
13. Line managing one HEO planner.�
Person specification
Essential Criteria
We are looking for people who:
14. Are self-starters able to lead the preparation of submissions and engagement with key LPA stakeholders.
15. Can work flexibly to deliver competing priorities in a fast paced and challenging environment, working at pace to tight deadlines.�
16. Can demonstrate strong communication skills (both written and verbal) including being able to translate technical planning language into plain English with a clear concise style.
17. Can develop constructive working relationships with internal and external stakeholders.��
18. Can work across the Division and planning policy teams, feeding into submissions, policy development and planning reform work.�
19. Can analyse evidence and use it to draw clear conclusions.
20. Have excellent attention to detail.
Desirable Criteria:
21. An understanding of the Local Plan process as well as a wider understanding of planning and how different policy areas interact with Local Plans.
22. A substantial amount of experience of working in planning or a related field and developed technical planning knowledge gained either through a professional qualification and/or experience.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of �38,732, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes �11,220 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
23. Learning and development tailored to your role
24. An environment with flexible working options
25. A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
26. A with an employer contribution of